"It just materialized so vividly in my mind in this way," she said.

Speaking to Niagara This Week last Thursday as the cast and crew in Brock's theatre department presented a scene from her adaptation, Alvarez, a professor in drama and liberal studies, said the story is well suited for the setting of a television studio.

The story is of the main character, Medea, and the betrayal she feels by her husband, Jason, after he marries another woman in order to secure citizenship for his children. In a conventional telling, this domestic dispute and the revenge it leads to is played out in front of an ever-present chorus. In this telling, the chorus is substituted with an audience for a sleazy daytime television show, with the chorus leader becoming a talk-show host.

The production has a definite multi-media flavour, as the audience is made aware of the television setting through the presence of a "crew," complete with cameras shooting the action and beaming it directly to giant screens behind the actors. But it is not only trashy TV being skewered in Alvarez's imagining; it is the presence of cameras of all types -- cell phone cams, web cams and security cams -- and how they turn private tragedy into public fodder that is being commented on.

Basing it on a recent modern translation, Alvarez, who has worked in the field of television wrote her adaptation in the form of a screenplay in one, frantic sit-down session lasting eight hours. The result remains largely unchanged for the stage version.

Alvarez said the cast has had discussions about Medea's actions, and whether her extreme actions would have played out the way they did without the presence of the cameras and the unseen audience with the sense of encouragement they provide.

"She feels pushed to, compelled to do it," she said of Medea's murderous actions. "What people will do for their 15 minutes."

Medea runs 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 13-15 at Brock's Sean O'Sullivan Theatre. Tickets are $15 for adults, $12 for students and seniors and $10 for those taking advantage of the group discount. Tickets can be purchased by calling the Centre for the Arts box office at 905-688-5550, ext. 3257.